[request] This feels untrue

As someone who worked with management in mcdogshit I can tell you right now that you can throw away an entire pallets worth of fries and not even see it. This is just propaganda. The standards are atrocious now.

>”Just one fry”

To me this implies that the employee that claims it’s just one fry is a fibber and it is in fact many more fries a shift.

I’m curious what amount of stolen fries could bankrupt McDonald’s.

Alright, so we will assume this is 1 store, because franchisees have to buy food supplies from McDonald’s corporate so food waste only drives up the profit margins for HQ

So, if we assume they have a reasonable number of employees (6 per shift + 6 managers (2 per shift for 7 day coverage) + 1 supervisor)

Assuming 7 permanent employees per shift with an equal distribution of days off that means there would only be 5 employees. We’ll assume that management steps in for the extra position like they’re supposed to

That brings it to 29 permanent employees.

A single McDonald’s Large has 72 fries

Hell, let’s scale this up and pretend that McDonald’s didn’t essentially make money as a landlord leasing their brand out to entrepreneurs and selling them the supplies necessary to run a kitchen.

McDonald’s has 1.9 Million employees that’s ~27,000 large fries.

Just based on what I can find around the unit cost for McDonald’s the corporation is $3 per 6 pound box of fries.

One large fry weighs 5.3 ounces, or ~18 per box, so 1,500 boxes or $4,500 if all 1.9 million employees got 1 free fry.

Going back to the 1 store example now that we have the unit cost we will assume that the store buys fries at a generous 100% markup for $6, or ~¢30 / large for a grand loss of ~$0.15 per day if every employee took one or ~$1 even per week and this is being exceptionally generous in assuming that they actually are fully staffed and not running everyone like a rented mule

At least according to a random reddit post I saw once, a single store can lose as much as $100 a week on french fry shrinkage

**TL;DR**

Providing each McDonald’s employee with one free french fry daily would cost $57,000 per day, which is almost four times less than the estimated daily loss due to wasted fries ($223,562). Over a year, this would cost McDonald’s $20.81 million, which is only 0.36% of its annual net profit.

If this additional expense resulted in net losses instead of being absorbed by profits, it would take 10,114 years to deplete McDonald’s total market value. This is more than five times the 2,000 years it took to build the Great Wall of China, meaning McDonald’s would last far longer than it took to construct the wall before collapsing.

**Full Math**

**1. Daily Cost of Providing One Free French Fry per Employee**

McDonald’s has a total of 1.9 million employees worldwide. If a single french fry costs about $0.03 (3 cents), the daily cost of giving each employee one free fry is:

1,900,000 .03 = 57,000 USD per day

So, it would cost McDonald’s $57,000 per day to provide each employee with one free french fry.

**2. Daily Loss Due to French Fry Waste**

According to the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), 30-35% of McDonald’s fries are discarded as waste. McDonald’s purchases over 3.4 billion pounds of potatoes annually in the U.S. If we assume that 50% of the potato weight is lost during processing, then McDonald’s produces around 1.7 billion pounds of french fries annually.

With a 30% waste rate, the total annual waste of fries is:

1,700,000,000 / 0.30 = 510,000,000 pounds wasted annually

Dividing this by 365 days, the daily french fry waste is:

510,000,000 365 = 1,397,260 pounds wasted per day

Assuming the cost per pound of french fries is $0.16, the daily cost of wasted fries is:

1,397,260 0.16 = 223,562 USD per day

So, McDonald’s loses about $223,562 daily in wasted french fries, which is almost four times the cost of giving a free fry to every employee ($57,000 per day).

**3. Annual Cost of One Free Fry per Employee vs. McDonald’s Total Profits**

Since we calculated that giving every employee one free fry costs $57,000 per day, we can estimate the annual cost:

57,000 365 = 20,805,000 USD per year

McDonald’s reported annual revenues of $23.18 billion in 2022. Assuming a 25% net profit margin, the estimated annual net profit is:

23,180,000,000 0.25 = 5,795,000,000 USD per year

To compare the annual cost of free fries against total profits, we find:

(20,805,000/5,795,000,000) * 100 = 0.36%

This means that the cost of providing one free fry per employee per day would consume only 0.36% of McDonald’s total annual profit.

**4. Time to Deplete McDonald’s Total Value at This Loss Rate**

McDonald’s has a market capitalization of approximately $210.41 billion as of late 2024. If the annual cost of free fries ($20.81 million) caused a net loss instead of being covered by profits, the time it would take to reduce McDonald’s value to zero would be:

(210,410,000,000)/(20,805,000) = 10,114 years

Thus, it would take 10,114 years of continuous losses at this rate to completely drain McDonald’s market value

**5. Comparison to the Construction of the Great Wall of China**

The Great Wall of China took approximately 2,000 years to complete. Since the 10,114 years it would take to deplete McDonald’s value is much longer than 2,000 years, this means that McDonald’s would survive more than five times longer than it took to build the Great Wall before going bankrupt.

**Assumptions**

A. Cost of a Single Fry ($0.03): I assumed that a single french fry costs $0.03 (3 cents) based on the estimated production cost of a full serving. The actual cost per fry could be lower or higher depending on location, supplier pricing, and bulk purchase discounts.

B. All Costs are in U.S. Dollars: McDonald’s operates in over 100 countries, and the cost of potatoes and labor varies significantly. In developing countries, where raw materials and labor are cheaper, the actual cost of a single fry could be much lower than $0.03. In high-cost regions like Europe or Japan, the cost could be slightly higher.

C. Annual Revenue and Profit Margin (25%): I assumed McDonald’s 2022 revenue of $23.18 billion remains constant, with a 25% net profit margin. Actual revenue and margin fluctuate year to year, especially with inflation, economic downturns, and operational efficiency.

D. McDonald’s Market Capitalization ($210.41 Billion): The total market value of McDonald’s was estimated at $210.41 billion based on recent data. Market capitalization changes constantly due to stock fluctuations, investor confidence, and financial performance.

E. Loss Calculation Doesn’t Account for Business Growth: If McDonald’s continued expanding, losses from free fries might be offset by increased profits. Conversely, if McDonald’s faced declining sales, the impact of the cost would be greater.

F. Cost Discrepancy Between Individual Fries and Bulk Waste: We assume that the cost of a single french fry is $0.03, while the cost per pound of french fries is $0.16. This discrepancy arises due to economies of scale, where bulk purchasing and processing significantly reduce costs per pound. Additionally, a portion of the wasted fries consists of uncooked or partially processed potatoes, which are cheaper than fully prepared and fried french fries. This means that while the cost of an individual fry is higher in a finished product, the overall cost per pound of wasted fries remains lower.

When I worked fast food, there was expected to be a certain number of items on the warmer during peak times. We’d mark them with the time, then if they didn’t sell in that time, they’d be thrown in a bucket.

At the end of the night, the bucket was counted to verify none of the employees took an old burger.

Former McDonald’s GM here. Fries were one of our largest margin items, and they got “stolen” all the time. It barely makes a difference in food cost.

I uses to get in trouble for eating the scrap buffalo nuggets that were destined for the trash at BWWs. They dont care about “theft”, its a power trip.

We shouldn’t be taking fries. We should be taking fields to grow potatoes, factories to make knives, and the fryers in which to fry.

I wouldnt mind if they went bankrupt. Maybe other companies try a little harder paying their employees so they dont have to steal food

Anyone who’s worked at McDonalds can tell you with the amount of food tossed in the waste bin from menu changeover or timing out, one fucking fry isn’t going to be noticed at all

[https://old.reddit.com/r/theydidthemath/comments/1htteip/request_this_feels_untrue/](https://old.reddit.com/r/theydidthemath/comments/1htteip/request_this_feels_untrue/)

You stole the post and the text.

It’s an AI image by the way.

This certainly seems to be a employee-oriented poster. Cause like who tf as an customer takes fries they didn’t pay for? Where would they even get that from?

Anyways, a small fry is around 40 fries each. Online there is a lot of conflicting data, but generally 30-50 people work in a McD.

Assuming every one of them takes one fry, it’ll probably be around one-two small fries per day.

Now, i have trouble believeing that a franchise would go bankrupt from just losing one small fry, but maybe they are funnelling every single penny that is made in profit to the owner (not keeping any aside for growth) and the owner doesn’t want to reduce his share

They tried to
Hit me with this logic when I worked at burger stop in legoland ca. I said we sell these fries for 7$ and soft drinks for $5 there is no way. Keep in mind this was the 2014 and the Lego movie just launched.

As a previous employee of McDonalds, if everyone took “just one fry” they would not go bankrupt at all. McDonalds wastes enough food as it is that everyone could take “just one fry”